Obesity: A symtom of a cultural problem
Obesity In North America
I saw a fake Time Magazine cover for “The Obesity Epidemic In America” today and it got me thinking. Its not like this “Obesity Epidemic” is a new issue. As far as I could remember, the growing waistlines of North Americans has been an issue of discussion.
We shouldn’t be looking at obesity as an epidemic. Obesity is not a disease, its a symptom of a culture we’ve managed to create with our excess resources. Yes, its unhealthy to put bullshit chemicals into your body and live a sedentary lifestyle. And while obesity may be a result of too much food and sitting around all day (in some cases, not all); obesity is just the part of the problem you can see.
As much as I hate to point fingers on something like the issue of obesity; because it defiantly doesn’t boil down to one factor, for one person. Its not one size fits all issue. I’ve only heard the idea of this culture of excess and money that we have created, talked about in one or two articles as a factor of obesity, but I think it is one of the most important.
I do have a theory on why the factor of our culture as an obesity factor is rarely talked about. Have you ever seen that MadTV sketch with Christa Flanagan, and shes wearing a fat suit and she wants to know how to loose weight, and this guy gives her a pentathlete that says “Eat Less Move More”?
Think about that ideal. If one is to “Eat Less” and “Move More” they loose weight, but lets say you used to eat a lot of McDonalds, and now you don’t eat at McDonalds. You are now one costumer lost to McDonalds. As corporations and governments will refuse to admit, if you dangle a big enough stack of cash in their faces, you will get your way.
If people are unhealthy its a shame, but if a company fails or the stock market plunges, its a tragedy. The people who suffer don’t matter, the only concern to a company’s CEO is “Which garage should I park my Mercedes in tonight”. It doesn’t matter to economists, CEOs or politicians that the people in North America are dying from excess food while children are dying of starvation impoverished countries across the world. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter to them if its your money, my money, or even the starving children’s money in their pockets, because money is money and at the end of the day political debates are all about who has the highest paid lobbyists. Congress almost considered Pizza a vegetable last year. If that doesn’t scream “Pizza companies want more money! So they hired lobbyist to make it so” I don’t know what does.
Being fat is a sign of a excess and sitting on your ass all day, but its the only sign.
Look at the plight of local farmers. Look at other countries standard of life in comparison to ours. In other parts of the world people live on barely ten dollars a day, here we don’t even think about dropping ten dollars for a pair of headphones or a few bucks for a single meal.
I’ve been thin my whole life, I’ve always been under or in the tenth percentile for height and weight. Despite being thin my whole life, I didn’t realize how unfit I was until I started jogging three years ago. While you couldn’t see the any sign of unhealthy eating or a sedentary lifestyle reflected on my body, it sure as shit was obvious when I ran. As I continued to jog and started reforming my diet to be healthier, I slowly and subconsciously started doing something that all North American girls should do but most don’t.
I started liking my body.
At first I was reluctant to the idea that my body was fine the way it was, because I saw all these little flaws. I couldn’t like my face because my nose was too big. I couldn’t like my stomach because it was too flabby. Thighs/legs not toned enough. Hair too thin. Boobs too small. Ass too small. Eyes too big. The list goes on.
But my body gets me places. My legs do this thing called walking, you see, and I can go almost anywhere doing this walking thing. Its amazing! I have these things called vocal chords, and they help me communicate. I have thumbs. Thumbs. Thumbs are amazing.
The human body is amazing. No matter how you look on outside, you have the ability to form thoughts and that makes you amazing, no matter how many flaws or what size you are.
While beauty has no size, it is always important to take care of yourself. Caring for yourself is the best way to show your beautiful body some love. No matter how you look you are always amazing.
So to all of you big girls out there, remember; the yo-yo diet industry is the only industry that makes money by failing. The only way to be the perfect size is to take care of your body and love every curve and every flaw. Happiness will fallow. Beauty has no size, the only persons standard who matters is yours. So love yourself, so take care of YOU.
But what do I know. I’m just some skinny 17 year old trapped in this crazy culture of excess.
